Official expounds Moroccan information technologies strategy

Morocco has adopted an ambitious strategy of new information and communication technologies (NICT), in the perspective of the projected free trade zone with Europe in 2010, said here Friday Nasser Hajji, secretary of state in charge of the new information and communication technologies.

The official who held a press conference explained that "the national strategy to integrate Morocco in the society of knowledge and information" revolves around generalizing the NICT to the rural world, schools and scientific research, speeded up deployment of infrastructures (information highways, multimedia), activating the sector liberalization and competition and defining the role of the state in the field.

Hajji, who stressed that the strategy will extend over several stages, said the public and private sectors should work closely to reach these goals. He went on commissions will be set up on the strategy five priorities: education-training, administration and local councils, enterprises and economy, e-commerce, generalizing the new technologies in social life and legislative and regulating issues.

He also deplored the low land phone penetration which stands currently at 5.2 phone lines for each 1,000 inhabitants and the low number of Internet users (200,000). He added that the new information technologies which employ 80,000 persons will be employing 120,000 in the future. A total of 2,000 engineers and 10,000 top technicians will be trained by 2004.